The Joy of America.

There is much joy in New York City today because of Jeremy Lin, and because New York City is located in the United States of America.

Jeremy Lin is a 23 year old professional basketball player for the New York “Knickerbockers” (“Knicks”).  He is American, born in Los Angeles, and is of Chinese descent. Lin graduated from Harvard.  The saying is, “You can always tell a Harvard man but you can’t tell him much.”  Well, you can’t tell a Harvard man on an NBA basketball court. There are too few of them. 

Harvard is not why there is so much joy over Lin; nor is China.  There is so much joy over Jeremy Lin, first, because he has succeeded (America does not take to failures, especially New York Americans).  Last night Lin scored 38 points against the Los Angeles “Lakers,” outscoring their star player Kobe Bryant.  In his three previous games Lin scored 23, 28, and 25 points.

Second, Lin has created so much joy because his stellar performances have been so unexpected. Out of Harvard, Lin was not selected by any NBA team. He played minor league basketball for teams named the Reno “Bighorns” and Erie “BayHawks.”  Americans love underdogs to succeed. It is part of the American dream that one can be born in a log cabin and grow up to be President (Abraham Lincoln), born to a white woman and African man and grow up to be President (Barack Obama), born poor in Scotland, immigrate to the U.S. and become a millionaire (Andrew Carnegie).  And so: of Chinese descent, athletically handicapped by Harvard, out of Reno and Erie, lights up the Lakers with 38 points?  Yeah, Americans are going to go nuts over that.

There was another feel-good story in American sports this past football season. Tim Tebow, as good a human being as there is, proved his doubters wrong by leading his NFL team, the Denver “Broncos” on a long winning streak that culminated in reaching the playoffs.  Tebow however was voted the best player in the country when he was in college.  He was still under-appreciated in the NFL but was not the nobody from Harvard that Lin was.

The stories of Jeremy Lin and Tim Tebow are all the more welcome this year because of the Penn State scandal.   It has been the worst year in American sports.  Lin and Tebow have brought joy to people in a country founded on the pursuit of happiness.